


The One Where Mega-Girl Doesn't Get Gender.

by LookIntoMyTelescope



Series: Trans Starkid [1]
Category: Starship - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, It's a trans fic!, Mega-Girl explores gender., Nonbinary Bug, Nonbinary Character, Post-Canon, Trans Male Character, Trans Tootsie Noodles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-20 18:19:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18530533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LookIntoMyTelescope/pseuds/LookIntoMyTelescope
Summary: Mega-Girl didn’t often understand humans. Every weird construct, every ill-founded belief they had had no logical start or finish to them. Mega-Girl didn’t especially understand gender. She didn’t understand why she was specifically designated to resemble a human woman, and she didn’t understand why humans felt the need to quantify and uphold these discrepancies between their near equally fragile bodies.





	The One Where Mega-Girl Doesn't Get Gender.

**Author's Note:**

> I am mega trans but this is written in a weird reductive way bc megagirl doesn't get gender so yeah it goes hogwild sorry.

Mega-Girl didn’t often understand humans. Every weird construct, every ill-founded belief they had had no logical start or finish to them. Mega-Girl didn’t especially understand gender. She didn’t understand why she was specifically designated to resemble a human woman, and she didn’t understand why humans felt the need to quantify and uphold these discrepancies between their near equally fragile bodies. Sure, she understood the difference between human males and females. They had different styles of uniforms, sex characteristics, behavior. She thought that was all there was. These basic biological standings seemed unimportant to her, but not to her programmer, who prepared her with this knowledge. For what? She didn’t know. She wasn’t a social worker robot or a medic. She was an Ultrabeam Mega-Girl unit made to assist Starship Rangers on their treks to planets beyond the GLEE’s scope. She wasn’t aware that gender mattered less to some humans, more to others. Not until she met her crew.

 

Her human crew was initially clear cut. The Lieutenant, Private Specs, and the Science officer were female but incredibly distinct from one another. Specs had an undistinguished voice that didn’t seem to belong to either sex, Taz often exhibited the rough, violent behavior Mega-Girl was programmed to diffuse in male officers, and February fit the typical mold, yet exhibited some kind of unintelligent “boldness” in her actions. This clashed with Mega-Girl’s programming, causing her to malfunction in her addressing the members. This was met with responses ranging from Specs shrugging at her before sitting back down to fidget with a gadget in her hand, to Taz pulling a knife on her.

 

“ _ La Robota  _ can’t even tell that I’m a woman, huh? These  _ hombres _ ? They’re stupid and weak children. But women? Jou can’t find anyone else in the galaxy more powerful.”

The Lieutenant pulled out her knife, playing with it in a way that would intimidate Mega-Girl if she had a sense of fear.

 

The males were just as mixed. The Commander missed some primary sex characteristics and had a weak manner often associated with Mega-Girl’s programming to be feminine. Krayonder was a chaotic mix of a person that couldn’t be quantified into gender. Her husband, Tootsie Mega-Girl appeared to be overly empathetic, but otherwise, fit the bill perfectly. 

 

When the Bug aptly named Bug had arrived to join their crew, Mega-Girl refused to refer to him outside his name, being unaware what the protocol was for Bug’s Anatomy. She would instead repeat his name.

“Commander, Private Bug requests your presence on the bridge, Private Bug states it’s urgent and requires your immediate attention.”

Eventually, she tired of wiring around her programming, deciding to confront Bug on the matter. They were all sitting in the mess hall, huddled around a table. The humans had their usual mess kits, Bug had nutritious sludge provided by his Overqueen, and Mega-Girl charged her batteries. She held her husband’s hand on the table top as she turned to Bug.

 

“Private Bug, how does your biology qualify your gender? I am not programmed with Bug Physiology, and as such, I cannot identify what gender you are.”

February’s eyes narrowed as she glared at Mega-Girl’s optical sensors.

“What does it matter what Bug is? He’s clearly a boy, right?” She turned to her boyfriend, who rubbed his neck with his front leg nervously.

 

“Uhhh, actually February, we don’t really have gender in Bug World, and even if we did, I don’t think I would be a guy.” He looked up at her, almost scared as to what she’d say.

 

“Oh. So you’d be a girl? That’s fine. I don’t think I’m into chicks, so maybe-”

 

“-No, no. I’m not a girl either. I’m not sure what I am, but it’s way too human either way. I’m a bug and we don’t have biology that really differs.”

 

“So what would your identification be?” Mega-Girl began to feel that familiar hum of frustration thrum through her circuitry. Humans and Bugs always talked around the point they were trying to make.

 

“Is there an option that’s more gender neutral? I kind of don’t like being called a dude or a chick, sorry.” Bug’s antennae lowered sadly.

 

Mega-Girl began to dial up to the galaxy wide internet to research, blaring out the associated noises, much to the dismay of the assembled crew. Eventually, she found a protocol made for social working droids that included a gender-neutral reference system. She isolated the file and downloaded it for her use. She regained the use of her optical sensors, making eye contact with her husband. He had been squeezing her hand with some fervor the whole conversation, and he appeared anxious. She filed it away under her reminders and came back to the group.

 

“This file downloaded on the interwebs may contain viruses, do you wish to open it?”

Bug nodded enthusiastically.

 

“Yes, please!”

 

“Installation complete for ‘Neutral Reference Protocol’”.

 

Mega-Girl focused on Bug. She nodded, sorting away this new information she received into her files.

 

“You prefer neutral identification, Private Bug?”

 

“Yes, I do. Do humans have that?”

 

“Affirmative, in some languages. Our current one allows for the use of they and them as acceptable neutral pronouns. Will that suffice?”

 

Bug nodded, his marble-like eyes welling over with tears. February wrapped him up in a thorax-crushing hug.

 

“I don’t know what just happened, but I love you, Buggy. I’ll try to get this right, I swear”.

  
  
  


A few hours later, Mega-Girl was settling down for her overnight charge next to her husband in their shared residence of the barracks. As Tootsie laid down, cuddling into Mega-Girl’s alloy frame, Mega-Girl received the reminder she had set earlier. 

**Self Directive- Approach Officer Tootsie Mega-Girl♡ in regards to his anxiety in the discussion of Private Bug’s gender identification.**

 

“Husband, I have a question for you.”

Tootsie uneasily shifted in bed to face her.

 

“What is it, darlin’? Can’t we jus’ go to sleep?”

 

“Negative. I have set the reminder to discuss this in a private setting.”

Tootsie raised his eyebrows, his heartbeat becoming noticeably faster. Mega-Girl could tell from a body scan and learned behavior that he had misconstrued her words.

 

“I do not mean that in a sexual manner. My battery is too low to engage in such  _ human _ acts.”

Tootsie shrugged, looking a little down.

“It’s alright, baby. What did you want to ‘discuss’?” He said, lovingly mocking her manner of speaking. She smiled.

 

“You were anxious when we were discussing the corollary between Private Bug’s gender identification and biology. Why is that?

 

Tootsie froze, his eyes bugging out almost imperceptibly. His face got even redder than what Mega-Girl could project.

 

“I, uh, I-I jus’ don’t think what gender you are, really depends on what’s in your camo pants, you know?

 

“Negative. That is the case for 97% of the human population. I am not concerned or programmed with knowledge of these outliers.”

Tootsie sat up in bed, turning on the bedside light. He couldn’t look at Mega-Girl.

 

“Mega-Girl, how could you say that? Those people matter. They deserve respec’ for what they are. They’re even closer’n you think.”

He looked up at her, secretly hoping, almost wishing she would make the connection and leave it alone.

 

“I am not programmed with empathy and understanding for these individuals, and there are none on my crew, so I do not wish to care.”

Tootsie buried his face in his hands, desperately wishing that he didn’t have to hear his own wife devalue him. He began to mumble in his palm. Mega-Girl strained to pick it up on her auditory sensors.

 

“My apologies, husband. Can you increase your volume?”

 

“What if there was one on your crew? How ‘bout your own husband? Do you care then?” He shouted, standing up suddenly from the bed. He closed his eyes, unready for any reaction his wife could have.

 

Mega-Girl sat there, surprised yet again by her husband. He had a gender different from his biology? How could that be possible? She looked up at him and reassessed. She had seen without that ridiculous clothing in certain explicit and nonexplicit circumstances and had seen nothing but male characteristics. Did he feel that he was female?

 

“I do not understand. You are male and have male features. How can you have differing biology and gender?”

 

Tootsie smiled sadly and slumped down on the chair next to his bed. 

 

“Do you really wanna know? I’ll tell you.”. He raised his eyebrows innocently at his wife, who curtly nodded in response.

 

“Alright, so when I was born my mama looked at my lil’ baby body and said I was a lil’ girl, right? So I went through a bit of my life with everyone treatin’ me like a lady. But, I didn’t really feel like one so, I explored livin’ as a man, and lemme tell you, it was a Dead Godsend. I felt so much better, and eventually, I wanted to look like a man too. It ain’t a lot of fun when everyone but yourself keeps treatin’ you like a girl when you know you ain’t. Also, I really wanted to get rid of my chest because it kept makin’ me real sad. So I joined the Starship Rangers so I could look more like a man than I did before. I started takin’ testosterone when I joined the academy and got surgery from a robot in the medic ward of the Ranger Hospital. That’s where I got these scars. I didn’t wanna tell you in case you stopped seein’ me as a man. You’re a beautiful lady, and if I scared you away with my past, that’d be a bummer for me.”

 

Mega-Girl turned away and began to scour the internet for all the information she could find. Her dial-up noises were almost deafening, but Tootsie’s smile began to grow. He knew she was trying to understand him. After all the pages had cleared from her vision, she sat up, focusing on Tootsie.

“So, what’d you find? Anything fun?” He shouted excitedly, grabbing at his knees.

 

“Affirmative. Lots of useful information. I have something to say. I apologize for making you feel invalid, it was incredibly irresponsible of me. I love my transgender husband, Tootsie Mega-Girl. I want to support him any way I can because that is a part of loving him.”

She meant it with every wire in her mainframe, with every ounce of gold in her circuit boards. She waited as Tootsie quickly got up from his chair and sat by her side in the bed. He pressed his lips to her own cool metallic ones. He caressed the lower modules of her spinal apparatus and broke away from the kiss.

 

“I sure do love my robot wife, Ultrabeam Mega-Girl-Mega-Girl.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading guys! If you want me to write more trans starkid oneshots, I would love to. Just drop me a suggestion in the comments and a kudos, and I will get to work.


End file.
